TO-READ SNOOPING

What are Katherine Applegate, Phil & Erin Stead, Nikki Grimes, Mo Willems, and other authors and illustrators reading this summer? SLJ has the scoop. Click here to read.

BIG SCREEN BEEKLE

In case you missed it, last week we had the biggest Caldecott Medal movie news since Martin Scorsese directed Hugo Cabret. Jason Reitman will be directing an animated adaptation of Dan Santat’s Beekle for DreamWorks (In this GeekDad interview Santat details how his successful pitch to DreamWorks is what allowed the book to be published in the first place.) Click here to read.

UK’S FINEST

Illustrator Chris Riddell has been named the UK Children’s Laureate. Click here to read more.

CANADA’S FINEST

And now for a list of a different sort: the 100 Best Canadian Books of All Time. Click here to read.

McToad Mows Tiny Island by Tom Angleberger; illustrated by John Hendrix. Out September 1, 2015.

Gotta say, this is a team-up I didn’t see coming. The dude behind Origami Yoda and The Qwikpick Papers (Angleberger) joins forces with a guy best known for historical picture books (Hendrix). I’m looking forward to the results, which have already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

For those of us who didn’t attend BEA (all that changes next year for me – see you BEA Chicago, folks!), Paula at Unadulterated.us has the perfect recap, including cheese in a cave.

Celebrity picture books. Way more interesting to me than the quality of the book is how the celebrity presents it. Fallon goes the route you might expect – self deprecating.

(Side note: During this video, I kept hoping Matt Lauer would spot LBB on the wall and remark, “what the hell?”)